Nuclear freeze 'won't last long': Iran

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Iran reiterated yesterday it was only prepared to freeze its
uranium enrichment activities for a few months and would not, as
the EU and Washington want, permanently mothball facilities which
could make atomic bombs.

The comments, made by Iran's chief nuclear negotiator, were a
further blow to European Union efforts to persuade Tehran to scrap
enrichment for good and were likely to fuel US concerns that Iran
secretly plans to produce nuclear weapons.

Iran, which insists its nuclear program is solely for
electricity generation, on Monday escaped possible UN sanctions
after agreeing to suspend all activities which could be used to
make bomb-grade material.

The EU hopes Iran will make the suspension permanent in return
for trade deals and other incentives. But Tehran says it will never
give up its right to develop a fully-fledged nuclear program, from
uranium mines to reactors.

"The length of the suspension will only be for the length of the
negotiations with the Europeans and ... must be rational and not
too long," Hassan Rohani told a news conference.

"We're talking about months, not years," said the cleric, who is
secretary-general of Iran's top security body, the Supreme National
Security Council.

The United States has expressed scepticism that Iran will stick
to the nuclear freeze and says it reserves the right to take Iran's
case to the Security Council on its own.

"The Americans have called for Iran to be reported to the
Security Council for a year and a half, now the whole world has
turned down America's calls," Rohani said.

"Despite the US propaganda Iran has not relinquished its right
to the (nuclear) fuel cycle and it never will do," he said.

Western diplomats have expressed growing frustration with Iran,
which reneged on a similar suspension six months ago and wrangled
over each step of negotiations on the current freeze.

But Rohani said Iran's talks with the EU over the nuclear issue
were a positive sign to the world.

"This is a historical opportunity for Iran and Europe to prove
to the world that unilateralism is condemned, that the world's most
complicated matters can be solved by negotiation."

"Negotiations with Europe will be complicated, it won't be easy
and will have lots of ups and downs," he added, warning: "If the
Europeans do not show honesty, we will leave the talks."

"Europe wants objective guarantees that our enrichment
activities won't be diverted to making weapons. How to implement
this guarantee will be the most difficult part of the
negotiations," he said.

The Iran-EU talks are due to resume on December 15, by which
time the two sides must resolve a dispute over 20 uranium
enrichment centrifuges which Iran wanted to exempt from the
freeze.

Iran says it will not use the centrifuges to enrich uranium - a
process which can make atomic reactor fuel or bomb-grade material.
But it wants to use them for other tests and research.

EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said Iran's nuclear freeze
meant talks would resume on a trade and cooperation agreement. The
talks have been on hold for more than a year.

"Working together in a constructive spirit, I believe we now
have the chance for a new chapter in our relationship with Iran,"
he said in a statement.

Rohani said the world had nothing to fear from Iran's nuclear
facilities. "If we had wanted to make a nuclear bomb we would have
made one in the last 20 years," he said.